FCC provides additional guidance to 700 MHz waiver recipients

Public-safety entities that recently received waiver approvals to build out 700 MHz broadband networks will need to provide detailed plans that outline how the new networks would interoperate with other public-safety broadband networks, according to an FCC public notice.

To date, the FCC has approved waivers for 21 public-safety entities to deploy broadband networks on the 10 MHz of spectrum licensed to the Public Safety Spectrum Trust (PSST) in the band, and three other entities — the state of Nevada, the state of Maryland and Nassau County, N.Y. — have submitted applications that are being reviewed by the agency, FCC spokesman Rob Kenny said.

Waiver recipients are required to provide their detailed plans to achieve interoperability — known as “interoperability showings” — to the FCC’s Emergency Response Interoperability Center (ERIC) for review, according to the FCC’s public notice. These plans are expected to address topics such as network architectures, interfaces, handoffs, roaming, security, priority access and quality of service, and the strategies the waiver jurisdiction plans to employ to ensure that the network is highly reliable and available to users.